Giants CEO Larry Baer reflects on season that went sideways

Giants owner Larry Baer smiles to fans atop of a convertible during the San Francisco Giants’ World Series victory parade along Market Street in San Francisco on Oct. 31, 2014.
Ray Chavez — Bay Area News Group

​SAN FRANCISCO >> Larry Baer will not ride down Market Street and pick paper confetti out of his hair this year.

Not too deeply into this disappointing season, the Giants’ CEO knew along with everyone else that his team would not contend despite a payroll that ranks in the top five among major league clubs.

A team expected to win 90-plus games instead must win five of its last 11 to avoid becoming the second in franchise history to lose 100. When teams fail in spectacular fashion, major changes often follow. When those teams fail in the face of high expectations, those changes are often made at a wholesale level.

The confetti falls on just one team every season. Now it’s the Giants’ turn to pick up a broom.

In an exclusive interview, Baer reflected on a season that went sideways, the end of the sellout streak, the Giants’ strategy in the short to medium turn and his level of confidence in his longtime baseball architects.

Q: The narrative that seems to be solidifying among the front office, coaches and players is that your fortunes in 2018 will largely rest on your core guys turning it around. Is that the way you would characterize it?

A: Yeah, in part, but I also think if you really look at our season, being a pitching intensive team, a third of our core pitching was really upside down this year. You’ve got Bumgarner, Cueto, Melancon and Will Smith. That’s four out of 12. And so I think you’ve got to look at it that way, too.

Now, I’m not naïve to think that given the record we have this year, you’ll blink your eyes and it turns around immediately. On the other end, don’t end the sentence there, because I was talking to Matt Williams, and he’s talking about how last year, Arizona was a 90-loss team. They’re going to be the mirror reverse of what they were last year and they didn’t change their personnel much. They had a few tweaks here and there, but not a ton of changes. Matt was saying that everything that could go wrong for the Giants this year went wrong, just like it did for the Diamondbacks in 2016. This year it fell into place for them, and Greinke was good and Pollock didn’t get hurt the day before the season, and blah blah blah.

Q: With potentially three playoff teams coming out of the NL West this season, to what extent is it realistic that you can compete in the short term?

A: That’s what we’re going to evaluate and determine at the end of the season. But as we’ve said, last year, we were in the playoffs and the Arizona Diamondbacks lost 93 games. So we’re not freaked out by the fact that three teams in the division are going to the playoffs. If Arizona felt that way last year, they would have done things differently. The whole point is, our baseball people will do their evaluations and they’ll get back with what the evaluation is: with our pitching and with what we have, can we get right back in it and be a contender next year, with Bumgarner, Cueto, Melancon and Smith for a full year? But I’m not going to make any proclamations about that. I want to be clear about that. I’m not going to say we can definitely do it. I’m going to go on what the baseball people say is their evaluation after two months of taking a hard look at it, knowing we weren’t going to be a contender this year.

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Q: The sellout streak has ended but the ballpark is mostly full most nights and crowds remain engaged when the team performs well. Do you envision a more challenging offseason in terms of renewals, etc.? And if you’re operating at less than full capacity in the future, or you forecast a dip in revenue on the baseball side, at what level do you believe the franchise can operate in terms of payroll?

A: It’s a fair question. Everything we’ve sensed so far, whether expressed in season tickets or sponsorships, we’re talking about very marginal decreases. We think from a revenue standpoint we’ll be pretty much as whole as we’ve been in the past. We just don’t see the drop off. Fans are hanging in there. We have 31,500 season-ticket holders and our initial soundings are they’re coming back. The sponsors are strong and loyal and they’ve had so much success and good results. So we don’t feel that it’s material, nor would it materially affect our decisions.

Q: It has been two years since the team shuffled the deck in the front office with Bobby Evans overseeing day-to-day operations as GM. Since then, three of the four halves of a season have been markedly unsuccessful. What is your evaluation of how that restructuring has gone, and does it need to change at all? Do you need to look at Brian Sabean doing more of his former duties?

A: I think we’re fine. Well, we’re obviously not fine with how the performance went this year. But I don’t think it’s a commentary on the structure, because a lot of the biggest issues have been either injuries or decisions about putting guys on the team that preceded the restructuring. So I don’t view it as a commentary on the structure. And look, we’re pretty collaborative. When you sit in the trade deadline room, even though Bobby’s the one that is day to day, Brian is there and Dick Tidrow and Jeremy Shelley, John Barr on the draft. So it’s all the same people, really. These are the same people that brought you the championships. It’s just that one is on more of a 24/7 clock than before. These are the same people. We didn’t bring in a new GM from the outside, we didn’t bring in a new manager from the outside, we didn’t bring in a new player personnel person from the outside. These are the same people that brought you a championship.

Q: Does that same sentiment and level of confidence apply to Bruce Bochy and the coaching staff?

A: If you’re talking about what’s the plan for next year, that is something Brian and Bobby will have to address after the season. Absolutely, Bruce Bochy will return. The coaching decisions haven’t been made. They will be made collaboratively after the season.

Q: Madison Bumgarner is without question your most valuable asset in terms of talent, club control and contract obligations with two $12 million club options remaining. Is there any scenario that you could see ownership signing off on trading Bumgarner as part of a system reboot?